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As expected, Psystar has answered Apple's lawsuit against the Florida-based PC-builder with a countersuit claiming that tying the Mac OS to Mac hardware violates antitrust laws. Though court documents don't appear to be available at this time, CNet reports that Psystar owner Rudy Pedraza held a press conference yesterday with lawyers representing Psystar, announcing the intent to countersue.

Apple made several claims in its lawsuit against Psystar, including copyright infringement, breach of contract, trademark infringement, trade dress infringement, and unfair competition. Psystar began selling its OpenComputer back in April with an option to preinstall Mac OS X Leopard, which expressly violates the EULA. Though the company insists that the computer ships with an unmodified version of Mac OS X, an unmodified version of the OS will not install on non-Apple hardware. Psystar uses open source tools designed to work around the issue. The company has also recently hosted patched versions of Apple's OS updates designed to install on OpenComputers, since the built-in Software Update feature will not work correctly with hacked systems.

Pedraza told CNet that his goal is to make Mac OS X "more accessible, to provide an alternative" to what he characterizes as exorbitantly priced "generic hardware." Though Apple's most recent hardware uses the x86 architecture and uses many of the same components as other PCs, calling Apple's hardware "generic" is just unfair. And, Apple is under no obligation to make its OS available to install on any hardware. One of Apple's selling points it that it makes "the whole widget," and its approach has generally worked in its favor.

Colby Springer, an attorney representing Psystar, says that Apple's actions constitute "an anticompetitive restrain of trade," but that seems like stretching the spirit and letter of the law far too thin. Pedraza hopes to have Apple's EULA ruled invalid, but that won't necessarily invalidate all of Apple's claims. In the meantime, Psystar continues to sell OpenComputers, and plans to sell a server capable of running Mac OS X Server as well a laptop that Pedraza described as "like a notebook."